It Is True
The widespread story of yesterday concerning the FEC regulation of blogs, and even e-mail that has political references has been substantiated.
The Washington Times in an op-ed piece today entitled Excesses in McCain-Feingold, certainly lends weight to the accuracy of the story. An excerpt on their take on the subject is quoted here:
“But last September U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly overturned the decision, arguing that the “commission’s exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines” the law’s purpose. Interpreting this, Mr. Smith told CNET News that “any coordinated activity over the Internet would need to be regulated, as a minimum.” This includes, but is not limited to, blogs and other sources of political news and opinion that might link to a candidate’s Web page. This leaves bloggers and online news sources in a state of regulatory limbo. “Would a link to a candidate’s page be a problem?” Mr. Smith asks. “If someone sets up a home page and links to their favorite politician, is that a contribution?”
Professor Bainbridge agrees, and even goes further in writing First Amendment’s Foes Strike Back. He goes so far as to say the following,
“Basically, it’s another smear campaign by the McCainites against Brad Smith, who may be the most frequently lied about bureaucrat in the federal government.
Friends of freedom clearly need to remember this incident if and when John McCain (or Russ Feingold, for that matter) runs again for President. And we need to roast President George Bush one more time for spinelessly signing the excrescence that is McCain-Feingold.”
Brad Smith is the Republican Commissioner on the FEC who revealed their intentions listed in our previous post here. Professor Bainbridge is also correct in criticising the President. This was a huge political miscalculation and error on the part of President Bush in choosing to sign McCain-Feingold into law. He was entrusting the SCOTUS to strike it down as unconstitutional as they had in the past, but this time did not.
Finally, Powerline has given their definitive take on this story entitled Campaign of deception. One must remember while reading the Powerline Blog, that it is written and posted by two practicing attorneys, and a third attorney who is currently a high ranking bank executive. (See their about link for further details).
After going over all the evidence in this instance, including several links to both sides writing concerning this issue, their judgement is this, quoted here:
“Once one sees that nothing in this decision limits its reach to paid ads, and that Potter and the McCain-Feingold sponsors favor regulating unpaid ads, the argument they raise falls apart, and all of Commissioner Smith’s points are, in fact, correct. The entire internet is up for grabs, and there is no reason that republication of campaign emails or posts, or advocacy of candidates on blogs, or links to candidates web sites, are not in serious danger. Although it is gratifying that some Democrats on the FEC are disavowing any intention to regulate blogs, it would be nice if Senators McCain and Feingold would do the same and if Congress would clearly undo the damage it appears to have done.”
All friends of the Constitution and freedom of speech must not allow this issue to be swept under the rug. Write now to your Senators and Congressmen. You can find contact information for Missouri’s two Senators in our previous post here. Those from other states can find contact information for their Senators and Representatives here.
All the blame for this fiasco can’t be placed at the feet of President Bush alone. The Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate could have buried this legislation so that it would never see the light of day. The Republicans in their efforts to appease John McCain, Republican (in name only), Senator from Arizona, along with not wanting to be perceived as against campaign finance reform, were partly responsible. The Democrats in their efforts to control elections by limiting the amount of money given to campaigns, pushed this legislation as well. So there is plenty of blame to go around.
The issue at hand now is to fix it, and fix it they must or one of our most sacred rights will be gone.
